Beyond their criminal histories, the killers on death row tend to share certain traits.

A disproportionate number are people of color. Most are poor and uneducated. When they are arrested, usually in their 20s, they already have a history of criminal behavior.

Most of the 616 people on California's death row had little in common with David Westerfield, a white, middle-class design engineer, until he became a convicted murderer.

Westerfield had attended college, owned his home and ran a successful business.

"Ordinarily, he would be an unusual prospect for the death penalty," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.
(The evidence supports that conclusion.)

The jury that convicted Westerfield last Wednesday of kidnapping and murdering his 7-year-old Sabre Springs neighbor, Danielle van Dam, now is being asked by the prosecution to recommend his execution.

This Wednesday, jurors will begin hearing evidence in the penalty phase of the trial, during which they will be asked to decide whether Westerfield should get the death penalty or spend life in prison without parole.

Although Westerfield's life history might make him an unlikely candidate for death row, the jury also will consider a second life – that of Danielle van Dam.

"The death penalty is about weighing the victim's life and the defendant's life," Dieter said. "If you take a sympathetic victim, it really tilts against the defendant."

Who's on death row A breakdown

Eleven people have been executed in California since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978, according to the California Department of Corrections. An overwhelming majority of the people on the state's death row are men; 13 are women. Thirty of them – or 5 percent – are from San Diego County.
The average age of death-row inmates when they are arrested is 28, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice. Westerfield was 49 when he was arrested Feb. 22, three weeks after Danielle's parents reported her missing.

Before that, Westerfield's lone conviction was in 1996 for drunken driving. Among death-row inmates with criminal histories, two-thirds had a prior felony conviction, and one in 12 had an earlier homicide conviction before they were tried in a capital murder case.

In California, 40 percent of death-row inmates are white. Thirty-six percent are black, 19 percent are Latino and 5 percent are other races, including Asian and American Indian.

The "vast majority" of the people on death row – as much as 99 percent – are impoverished, said Lance Lindsey, executive director of Death Penalty Focus, a San Francisco organization that supports abolishing the death penalty.

"Usually if you have enough money, you're very unlikely to get sentenced to death," Lindsey said.

Lawyers matter count

In addition to the defendant and the victim, the outcome also can hinge on the characteristics of the lawyers arguing the case.
Death-penalty cases call for experienced attorneys, Lindsey said.

"These cases are extremely complicated and require tremendous skill and a lot of money," he said.

Westerfield's lead defense attorney, Steven Feldman, is considered by his colleagues to be among the most obstinate and talented criminal defense attorneys in San Diego. Feldman is known for his flamboyant style, dogged work ethic and ruthless cross-examinations.

In 1986, Feldman earned an acquittal in a capital murder case in which he was the seventh lawyer to represent the accused killer. Robert Corenevsky had been in jail more than five years awaiting trial on charges of murdering a jeweler at a Calexico motel.

Feldman's work in the case earned him a public service award from the San Diego criminal defense bar.

He wasn't as successful in his defense of triple killer David Allen Lucas, a Casa de Oro carpet cleaner who was sentenced to death in 1989 for slashing the throats of two women and a 3-year-old boy.

During the Lucas proceedings, Feldman expressed sympathy for the families of the victims, but asked the judge not to impose the death penalty, saying she "may have the legal authority to impose the death penalty but not the moral authority."

"The message we must send to our children is to honor and sanctify life," Feldman said. "Imposing the death penalty defeats that purpose."